Joe de V, the father
Manuel Biason
17 Feb 2009
This may no longer be news but it is still very relevant. The venue is the Senate. He sat in a committee hearing as if to make a confession. Actually, he did, but it was a confession that soon ripened into a full-blown expose resulting in an imbroglio which prompted weight crashing against weight that eventually made a Pangasinan star lost its luster.
When Joey De Venecia talked in Congress about the ZTE scam and hinted that the FG was a behind-the-scene broker in the deal, the young man opened a can of worms which many did not like to see. The diatribes he hurled against the first gentleman and Abalos, the elections chief who had since resigned from his job to avoid the pain of impeachment, drew bitter reactions that would soon make the presidential blitz plunge on him and on his father as well.
Most people believe that his revelations in the Senate committee hearings are true as he gingerly recited one fact to another linking Mike Arroyo and Abalos in the fiasco. His raw courage drew praises from many that made him looked like a hero and smelled like a rose as soon as he made the whistle-blowing which was quickly described by Malacanang’s sycophants as nothing more than “sour-graping”, citing that Joey was disappointed after his company lost its bid on the the broad band project. Defenders of the deal retorted that Joey’s corporation is not viable enough to handle such a huge government project – let alone finance it – such that awarding the gargantuan project to a small company like his might jeopardize quality as well as work fluency.
This assessment by government people was seen to be valid and acceptable after SEC records were shown in the hearings that his corporation is sub-standard and is poorly capitalized. But the larger issue that made observers asked this question is: Is it his company’s ability to do the job that is the problem, or is it his company’s inability to come up with the $132,000.00 in immediate kickbacks? People are prone to believe the second binary because Joey’s testimonies seem to bear all the marks of credibility, although the first remains undeniably true.
The younger De Venecia thought that he could ride on his father’s clout as Speaker and use it to draw sympathetic favors from the broad band project players but what he did not recognize off hand is that his rivals are much weightier than his father.
Poor Joey’s hard-earned fame served him well but did not last long enough to earn him accolade because in few days after he made the vitriol, his comeuppance would plunge not only on him but also on his father. The older De Venecia, by power-play, was stripped of his crown as Speaker of the House and the poor Speaker was so helpless and powerless that he did not put a good fight. He simply gave it up.
When giants fight the earth will shake and we can see a giant fall. We did. JDV fell like Goliath but this time this Goliath was the smaller giant.
Some people like JDV, others don’t, and since his fall, the carrots hung high and the rabbits starved. In the world of politics it simply means – ‘no pork barrel” and ‘no talk”. But who cares about pork barrels and speakers if one loses the love and respect of his son.
For this, I salute JDV for being with his son all the way until the skirmishes were over.
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